zeus-2

This is a love story in the format of a comedy. Or, more appropriately, a love quest story. Like the Detective saga it parodies, the characters are on a search for absolution. But in Rudolph's screwball world where, for instance, every car is at least 20 years old and carries the model name "classic", all of this light madness works toward one, central theme: love is almost impossible to find, but, oh, so much fun to search for.

All the characters that are in long-term relationships are either breaking up, cheating on each other, or completely self-deluded. The other characters are in perpetual seek mode, from Miss Dolan who flirts and swoons wherever her whimsical heart takes her, to Stella, who studies "The Love Manual" and bitterly says things like, "the one who is in love always waits. It's the lover's signature."

Ultimately, this makes for light, entertaining fare. There aren't many bellylaughs, but there is a continual glow and a delightful, endearing glee about the film. Director Rudolph's cinematic sense is so keen that everything seems larger than it is, and more meaningful.

With not so quite as glamorous an entrance as "Gilda", Sadie arrives in paradise like the proud mainmast of the ship. And she IS propulsion. Immediately, reaction to her causes hormonal chaos among the gyrenes and moral outrage with the missionaries. But, what do you expect? A Goddess has descended to earth, where, as Mr. Davidson says, "all of nature seems to conspire against us. Everything grows with a sort of savage violence". This is Aphrodite--not Athene--and she comes to party, not conquer.

Unfortunately, she pulls her incantation out of the wrong century. She appears as a vision from Titian or Rubens, not Playboy or Penthouse. This is Rita's last film, really. But she plays it with zest and vitality, dazzling with a smile and flirting with a flip of the skirt. Considering her "Life" magazine cover was the number one pinup of WWII, it's a true delight to see her dancing in a red dress with a room full of beer-salivating soldiers. It's an icon being finally animated. But once the tribute is paid, the Goddess departs, leaving the celluloid alter to the inept rituals of the Hollywood moralizers.

And off we go. Themes like intolerance, justice, punishment and atonement are dusted off and brought forth, veiling their true covenant of female servitude and demonic spirit-breaking. Every soldier's nightmare of coming home to a "breezy dame" is acted out with O'Hara's self-righteous explosion to Sadie's confession that she worked at the Emerald Club. Never mind that he was a patron. This is "Rosie the Riveter" becoming "Rosie the Reveler". At least Mr. Davidson is upfront about his emotional Nazism. His offered choice of facing one's fears and standing trial for one's mistakes is actually better than O'Hara's insidious sentence. The scriptwriters would have you believe otherwise, but Sadie's indomitable spirit is not furthered by becoming a "decent woman". O'Hara is selling love under the guise of protection; which is kinda like going to war to preserve peace.

Too bad Aphrodite couldn't stay longer. But like a true mythological Goddess, she lives on in the hearts of us who believe in her.